Art: Fifth Anniversary

When the New Deal took over Washington, the great limestone & marble
building which now houses the Post Office Department was nearing
completion. Its architects wanted its walls decorated with the usual
classical allegory. A special adviser to the State and Treasury
Departments named Edward Bruce objected. A capable Manhattan lawyer who
retired in 1922 to become a capable artist, he stormed: "I don't want
any pictures of ladies in cheesecloth clutching letters and postcards
to go into that building!"

Before long Edward Bruce's good friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had him
heading a newly created Section of Fine Arts, charged with...